Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on A problem with Timeless Decision Theory (TDT) - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Gary_Drescher 04 February 2010 06:47PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (127)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 20 December 2011 08:31:12PM 3 points [-]

Agent X is a piece of paper with "Defect" written on it. I defect against it. Omega's claim is true and does not imply that I should cooperate.

Comment author: ArisKatsaris 21 December 2011 04:34:20PM 2 points [-]

I don't see this argument making sense. Omega's claim reduces to neglibible chances that a choice of Defection will be advantageous for me, because Omega's claim makes it of neglible probability that either (D,C) or (C, D) will be realized. So I can only choose between the worlds of (C, C) and (D, D). Which means that the Cooperation world is advantageous, and that I should Cooperate.

In contrast, if Omega had claimed that we'd make the opposite decisions, then I'd only have to choose between the worlds of (D, C) or (C, D) -- with the worlds of (C, C) and (D, D) now having negligible probability. In which case, I should, of course, Defect.

The reasons for the correlation between me and Agent X are irrelevant when the fact of their correlation is known.

Comment author: cousin_it 21 December 2011 11:45:36AM *  2 points [-]

Agent X is a piece of paper with "Defect" written on it.

Sorry, was this intended as part of the problem statement, like "Omega tells you that agent X is a DefectBot that will play the same as you"? If yes, then ok. But if we don't know what agent X is, then I don't understand why a DefectBot is apriori more probable than a CooperateBot. If they are equally probable, then it cancels out (edit: no it doesn't, it actually makes cooperating a better choice, thx ArisKatsaris). And there's also the case where X is a copy of you, where cooperating does help. So it seems to be a better choice overall.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 21 December 2011 11:55:13AM *  1 point [-]

But there's also the case where X is a copy of you, where cooperating does help, so it seems to be a better choice overall.

There is also a case where X is an anticopy (performs opposite action), which argues for defecting in the same manner.

Edit: This reply is wrong.

Comment author: cousin_it 21 December 2011 11:56:35AM 2 points [-]

There is also a case where X is an anticopy (performs opposite action), which argues for defecting in the same manner.

No it doesn't. If X is an anticopy, the situation can't be real and your action doesn't matter.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 21 December 2011 12:03:11PM 1 point [-]

Why can't it be real?

Comment author: cousin_it 21 December 2011 12:03:52PM 2 points [-]

Because Omega has told you that X's action is the same as yours.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 21 December 2011 12:06:11PM 2 points [-]

OK.